One of the oldest video-based festivals in the country, the Dallas Video Fest opens this Wednesday, Sept. 21, and runs through Sunday, Sept. 25, with a diverse, entertaining and thought-provoking line-up to be shown at the Angelika Film Center at Mockingbird Station and The Texas Theatre in Oak Cliff. This year’s festival will be an event to remember with a wonderful selection of films, as well as, panel discussions, workshops and seminars. The DVF's opening night presentation will be “Film Socialisme,” the new feature from legendary director and French New wave pioneer Jean-Luc Godard.

As always, films with strong social impact are featured throughout the Fest, and Video Association of Dallas and Dallas Video Fest founder and NIDFW community member Bart Weiss took time out from making last-minute Fest tweaks to put together a list of nine must-see films. Get your digital or paper calendar ready, and read on: (also please do some social sharing!)

Click on the film title to get more information, show times and to buy tickets. Thanks so much, Bart!

THURSDAY, Sept 22

YERT: Your Environmental Road Trip - Angelika Film Center

50 States. 1 Year. Zero Garbage? Called to action by a planet in peril, three friends hit the road - traveling with hope, humor, and all of their garbage - to explore every state in America (the good, the bad...and the weird) in search of the extraordinary innovators and citizens who are tackling humanity's greatest environmental crises. As the YERT team layers outlandish eco-challenges onto their year-long quest, an unexpected turn of events pushes them to the brink in this award-winning docu-comedy. Featuring Bill McKibben, Wes Jackson, Will Allen, Janine Benyus, Joel Salatin, David Orr, and others.

Where Soldiers Come From - Angelika Film Center

From a snowy small town in Northern Michigan to the mountains of Afghanistan and back, Where Soldiers Come From follows the four-year journey of childhood friends and their town, forever changed by a faraway war. A documentary about growing up, the film is an intimate look at the young men who fight our wars, and the families and town they come from. Returning to her hometown, Director Heather Courtney gains extraordinary access following these young men as they grow and change from teenagers stuck in their town, to 23-year-old veterans facing the struggles of returning home.

FRIDAY, Sept. 23

Kumaré - Angelika Film Center

 (Winner, Audience Award - Best Documentary at 2011 SXSW Film Festival)

SATURDAY, Sept. 24

In the Name of the Family - Angelika Film Center

On December 10, 2007, a 16-year-old Toronto schoolgirl, Aqsa, was strangled to death; her father and brother are charged with murder. Three weeks later, teenage sisters were shot to death in Dallas; their father is wanted for murder. Six months later, a 19-year-old college student was stabbed by her brother; he was convicted and is now in jail in New York. Friends and family of the murdered girls paint a chilling portrait of the forces that led to their deaths, and Toronto schoolgirls talk about their lives of constant fear. While Muslim women organize to help girls at risk and the imam at a Toronto mosque teaches that violence has no basis in Islam, some men continue to justify these crimes through patriarchal beliefs about family honour. Award-winning director Shelley Saywell brings her consummate documentary skills and passion for human rights to challenge the traditions that lie behind the heartbreaking tragedies committed against young girls caught between two cultures in North America.

Tony & Janina"s American Wedding is a feature length documentary that gets to the heart of the broken, red tape ridden U.S. immigration system. After 18 years in America, Tony and Janina Wasilewski"s family is torn apart when Janina is deported back to Poland, taking their 6 year old son Brian with her. Set on the backdrop of the Chicago political scene, and featuring Illinois Congressman Luis Gutierrez at the heart of the immigration reform movement, this film follows the Wasilewski"s 3-year struggle to be reunited, as their Senator Barack Obama rises to the Presidency. With a fresh perspective on the immigration conversation, this film tells the untold human rights story of Post-9/11, that every undocumented immigrant in America faces today, with the power to open the conversation for change.

SUNDAY, Sept. 25

We love our cell phones and the selection between different models has never been bigger. But the production of phones has a dark, bloody side.

Better This World - Angelika Film Center

Two boyhood friends from Midland, Texas – David McKay and Bradley Crowder – fall under the sway of a charismatic revolutionary ten years their senior. At the volatile 2008 Republican Convention the "Texas Two" cross a line that radically changes their lives. The result: eight homemade bombs, multiple domestic terrorism charges and a high stakes entrapment defense hinging on the actions of a controversial FBI informant. A dramatic story of idealism, loyalty, crime and betrayal, BETTER THIS WORLD goes to the heart of the War on Terror and its impact on civil liberties and political dissent in post-9/11 America.
better this world

A personal essay film telling five riveting stories that go beyond political postures to reveal the passionate debates over identity and generational change inside today"s American Jewish community. Snitow and Kaufman take us on a uniquely personal road-trip that reframes intensely polarized debates over tradition and change, loyalty and dissent inside one American ethnic community.between 2 worlds

The Dallas Video Fest has a legacy that is both memorable and innovative. DVF has shown countless films in the past including the Emmy-award winning documentary “Freedom Riders.” It has showcased work from filmmakers such as Jim Sheridan and Michael Moore and had many notable guests including Monty Python’s Terry Gilliam, as well as television icon and actor Paul Reubens.

See you at the Dallas Video Fest!